Painful day for offensive line could be costly, too

The Jags were down to their final lineman after three left with injuries.

MICHAEL C. WRIGHT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - For much of this morning, a few Jaguars offensive linemen will undergo MRIs at a local hospital and X-rays at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.

It appears starting right guard Maurice Williams tore his right biceps during pregame warmups on Sunday, and left guard Vince Manuwai sprained his right knee in the third quarter of the Jaguars' 17-10 loss to Tennessee. Both will undergo MRIs today.

Backup guard Uche Nwaneri added to the offensive line injury toll when he took a hard shot to his left knee with 3:51 left in the opening quarter. He'll have X-rays today.

The injuries come on the heels of last week's shooting of backup tackle Richard Collier, and might leave the Jaguars scrambling for healthy bodies headed into next week's home opener against Buffalo.

"That position was hit hard today in the game and it was unfortunate," Del Rio said. "It made it rough."

Perhaps that's one of the reasons why Titans defenders spent so much time in the Jaguars' backfield.

A relentless pass rush paired with Jacksonville injuries up front enabled Tennessee to sack quarterback David Garrard seven times for 59 yards in losses. And when the Titans weren't sacking Garrard, they hurried him.

In all, the Titans tallied 11 quarterback hurries, which helped force two interceptions. Garrard finished the afternoon with a dismal 68.2 passer rating.

Manuwai, a sixth-year veteran who suffered what he hopes is an MCL sprain, couldn't remember the last time the Jaguars accumulated so many injuries along the offensive line so quickly.

"This is the first time I've ever seen it like this - a chain reaction," Manuwai said. "In four or five years, we've had a couple of guys miss a few games. But it was never like this. It went from Mo [Williams] to Uche, then to me."

Del Rio called Williams' injury "a freak deal," and it's unknown whether he'll miss a significant amount of time. Player rumblings throughout the locker room Sunday indicated Williams' biceps is torn, which would mean he'd likely be facing a recovery timetable comparable to that of Brad Meester, who suffered a torn biceps during training camp and isn't expected to return until Week 4 or 5.

Williams said the injury occurred as the club ran through plays during warmups.

After testing out the arm to see if he could still play, Williams decided there was "no power," in the injured biceps.

"I wanted to see what I could do with it, but it was ineffective," Williams said. "So I made the best decision instead of hurting the team."

Nwaneri was able to return from his setback shortly after the injury. Once Nwaneri went down, though, the club was down to Tutan Reyes, its last healthy offensive lineman on the sidelines.

Had Reyes gone down, the club may have been forced to play someone out of position just to fill out the offensive line.

"What happened today was pretty rare," Nwaneri said. "We had some issues in various areas, but when you're in there, you've got to play. This is what you get paid for. You've got to do your job. We didn't get it done this week."